The present invention relates generally to rotary machines and, more particularly, to the control of forward wheel space cavity purge flow and combustion gas flow at the leading angel wing seals on a gas turbine bucket.
A typical turbine engine includes a compressor for compressing air that is mixed with fuel. The fuel-air mixture is ignited in a combustor to generate hot, pressurized combustion gases in the range of about 1100° C. to 2000° C. that expand through a turbine nozzle, which directs the flow to high and low-pressure turbine stages thus providing additional rotational energy to, for example, drive a power-producing generator.
More specifically, thermal energy produced within the combustor is converted into mechanical energy within the turbine by impinging the hot combustion gases onto one or more bladed rotor assemblies. Each rotor assembly usually includes at least one row of circumferentially-spaced rotor blades or buckets. Each bucket includes a radially outwardly extending airfoil having a pressure side and a suction side. Each bucket also includes a dovetail that extends radially inward from a shank extending between the platform and the dovetail. The dovetail is used to mount the bucket to a rotor disk or wheel.
As known in the art, the rotor assembly can be considered as a portion of a stator-rotor assembly. The rows of buckets on the wheels or disks of the rotor assembly and the rows of stator vanes on the stator or nozzle assembly extend alternately across an axially oriented flowpath for the combustion gases. The jets of hot combustion gas leaving the vanes of the stator or nozzle act upon the buckets, and cause the turbine wheel (and rotor) to rotate in a speed range of about 3000-15,000 rpm, depending on the type of engine.
As depicted in the figures described below, an axial/radial opening at the interface between the stationary nozzle and the rotatable buckets at each stage can allow hot combustion gas to exit the hot gas path and enter the cooler wheelspace of the turbine engine located radially inward of the buckets. In order to limit this leakage of hot gas, the blade structure typically includes axially projecting angel wing seals. According to a typical design, the angel wings cooperate with projecting segments or “discouragers” which extend from the adjacent stator or nozzle element. The angel wings and the discouragers overlap (or nearly overlap), but do not touch each other, thus restricting gas flow. The effectiveness of the labyrinth seal formed by these cooperating features is critical for limiting the undesirable ingestion of hot gas into the wheelspace radially inward of the angel wing seals.
As alluded to above, the leakage of the hot gas into the wheelspace by this pathway is disadvantageous for a number of reasons. First, the loss of hot gas from the working gas stream causes a resultant loss in efficiency and thus output. Second, ingestion of the hot gas into turbine wheelspaces and other cavities can damage components which are not designed for extended exposure to such temperatures.
One well-known technique for reducing the leakage of hot gas from the working gas stream involves the use of cooling air, i.e., “purge air”, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,822 (Lenehan et al). In a typical design, the air can be diverted or “bled” from the compressor, and used as high-pressure cooling air for the turbine cooling circuit. Thus, the cooling air is part of a secondary flow circuit which can be directed generally through the wheelspace cavities and other inboard rotor regions. This cooling air can serve an additional, specific function when it is directed from the wheel-space region into one of the angel wing gaps described previously. The resultant counter-flow of cooling air into the gap provides an additional barrier to the undesirable flow of hot gas through the gap and into the wheelspace region.
While cooling air from the secondary flow circuit is very beneficial for the reasons discussed above, there are drawbacks associated with its use as well. For example, the extraction of air from the compressor for high pressure cooling and cavity purge air consumes work from the turbine, and can be quite costly in terms of engine performance. Moreover, in some engine configurations, the compressor system may fail to provide purge air at a sufficient pressure during at least some engine power settings. Thus, hot gases may still be ingested into the wheelspace cavities.
Angel wings as noted above, are employed to establish seals upstream and downstream sides of a row of buckets and adjacent stationary nozzles. Specifically, the angel wing seals are intended the prevent the hot combustion gases from entering the cooler wheelspace cavities radially inward of the angel wing seals and, at the same time, prevent or minimize the egress of cooling air in the wheelspace cavities to the hot gas stream. Thus, with respect to the angel wing seal interface, there is a continuous effort to understand the flow patterns of both the hot combustion gas stream and the wheelspace cooling or purge air.
For example, it has been determined that even if the angel wing seal is effective and preventing the ingress of hot combustion gases into the wheelspaces, the impingement of combustion gas flow vortices on the surface of the seal may damage the seal and shorten the service life of the bucket.
The present invention seeks to provide unique angel wing seal and/or bucket platform geometry to better control the flow of secondary purge air at the angel wing interface to thereby also control the flow of combustion gases at that interface in a manner that extends the service life of the angel wing seal and hence the bucket itself.